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I will be setting up a website hosted on GoDaddy in the near future. However, one of the key components to making this website work is it's reliance on text messages coming from my phone. I will use SMS messaging to text my server with specific updates (example: "on route," "no longer delivering," etc). The idea is I text a specific address and the server updates a text file with the specific information from the text message from my phone. Then, when someone goes to the website, it will pull data from the text file to determine the current status and act from there.

How would I set up such a service through a web hosting server? I am familiar with HTML, PHP, and JavaScript, but won't mind learning another language if necessary.

Dylan Wheeler
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    stop, dont use godaddy, one of the worst hosts. –  Jan 07 '15 at 02:09
  • there are many sms service providers you can use, depending on location and budget. –  Jan 07 '15 at 02:12
  • @AaronD I checked out that page and it seems similar to what I'm trying to accomplish, but it doesn't answer my question of how to check the server's email and then send the text of my message to a text file. I'm unsure how to check that it's received an update from me. – Dylan Wheeler Jan 07 '15 at 02:15
  • @Dagon do you have another alternative to a better host than GoDaddy? – Dylan Wheeler Jan 07 '15 at 02:15
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    for yhe 2nd part: pipe email from sms provider to php script, or use sms providers api –  Jan 07 '15 at 02:19
  • depends on your mailserver –  Jan 07 '15 at 02:21
  • Do as Dagon said, also, imo i'd choose HostGator over godaddy any day of the week. (*research doesn't go astray here, always check reviews on the hosting company you'd choose.*) – Darren Jan 07 '15 at 02:22
  • a good provider will push the message to a url, so you can skip the mail bit –  Jan 07 '15 at 02:25
  • What would happen if I sent a text message to the PHP file? Would it run the file whilst passing through any arguments or is it not that simple? – Dylan Wheeler Jan 07 '15 at 02:29
  • there is no straight path from sms to php file –  Jan 07 '15 at 02:55

2 Answers2

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You may be able to use google voice to receive sms messages. You may be able to receive them using pop, imap or xmpp (with varying flexibility on receiving. You would need to have something running on your host provider independent of the web server (or somehow trigger a web page to poll at regular intervals). This would depend on your hosting provider.

Update: I googled for "google voice receive text" and received step by step instructions on how to receive text messages via google voice to email. All you would need to do is connect to gmail (e.g. once per minute) to check if any messages have been received, using imap or pop (you may need to enable imap on gmail too).

AMADANON Inc.
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Twilio has a cheap, easy-to-use API for SMS messages.

Check it out here.

Westy92
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